There are very few bonds in life stronger than among those who have served in the Armed Forces — soldiers, sailors and others who volunteered out of a sense of duty or who responded when called upon.

Cemeteries across the country pay tribute to those who paid the ultimate price.

The last U.S. veteran of World War I is gone and the ranks of World War II and Korean War vets are dwindling. Baby boomers who served in Vietnam are retiring. And with the pullout of troops from Afghanistan, the U.S. commitment there and in Iraq is coming to an end.

A group of American assault troops who stormed Normandy, France take time out for food on June 8, 1944. File photo: AP
U.S. Marines of the 28th Regiment, 5th Division, raise the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, on Feb. 23, 1945 during World War II. File photo: Joe Rosenthal, AP
U.S. Air Force bombs create a curtain of flying shrapnel and debris barely 200 feet beyond the perimeter of South Vietnamese ranger positions defending Khe Sanh during the siege of the U.S. Marine base, March 1968. File photo: ARVN, Maj. Nguyen Ngoc Hanh, via AP
U.S. Air Force pararescuemen ride in the back of their medevac helicopter with the American flag draped over bodies of U.S. soldiers who were killed in a roadside bomb attack in Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Oct. 10, 2010. File photo: David Guttenfelder, AP
Lance Cpl. Blas Trevino of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, clutches onto his Rosary beads as he is rescued onto a medevac helicopter from the U.S. Army's Task Force Lift "Dust Off", Charlie Company 1-214 Aviation Regiment after he got shot in the stomach outside Sangin, in the Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan, Saturday, June 11, 2011. AFile photo: Anja Niedringhaus, AP
U.S. Marines with the 3rd Platoon, Bravo Company, 1st Battalion 5th Marines, run for cover as the Taliban approach, in the Nawa district, Helmand province, southern Afghanistan, Friday, Oct. 2, 2009. File photo: Brennan Linsley, AP
U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf from a landing craft in the days following D-Day and the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France at Normandy in June 1944 during World War II. File photo: Bert Brandt, AP
Responding to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, troops of the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division deploy across the Saudi desert on Nov. 4, 1990, during preparations before the Gulf War. File photo: Greg English, AP
B52 high altitude bombers leave condensation trails while passing the town of Cai Lay in the Mekong Delta on Sept. 29, 1972, moments after unleashing bombs on a suspected enemy positions. File photo: Nick Ut, AP
American infantrymen fire a 37mm gun at a German position in France during World War I. File photo: AP
U.S. soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division fire mortars in the Pech Valley of Afghanistan's Kunar province Monday, Oct. 26, 2009. From left to right are Cpl. Jeremy Foley of Bloomington, Ill., and Spc. William Makenzie of Pendleton, Ore. File photo: David Guttenfelder, AP
Wounded U.S. Marine Sgt. Shane Hanley, center, a squad leader from Easy Company, 2-2 Marines, receives treatment by U.S. Army flight medic Sgt. Michael G. Patangan while airborne in an army Task Force Pegasus medevac helicopter, shortly after Hanley was wounded in the Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan on Feb. 9, 2010. File photo: Brennan Linsley, AP
In this photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, a U.S. Coast Guard landing barge, tightly packed with helmeted soldiers, approaches the shore at Normandy, France, during initial Allied landing operations on June 6, 1944. File photo: AP
Two U.S. GIs from the 25th Division move up the cold, snow-covered road toward their front line bunker on the central front in Korea, Nov. 5, 1953. File photo: AP
U.S. Army 2nd Lt. Tony Ferguson, of Bahama, N.C., eats a field ration in the Saudi desert as an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter hovers nearby, .Nov. 10, 1990, in Saudi Arabia. File photo: John Gaps III, AP
Under sniper fire, a Vietnamese woman carries a child to safety as U.S. Marines storm the village of My Son, near Da Nang, as they search for Viet Cong insurgents in April 1965. File photo: Eddie Adams, AP
A U.S. soldier of the 9th Infantry Division uses an M79 grenade launcher to guide helicopters into an operation on the northern edge of South Vietnam's Mekong Delta in mid-July 1968. File photo: Henri Huet, AP
A U.S. medical helicopter arrives to evacuate a soldier from the 1-320th Alpha Battery, 2nd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, who was seriously wounded when he stepped on an improvised mine near Combat Outpost Nolen, in the volatile Arghandab Valley, Kandahar, Afghanistan, July 30, 2010. File photo: Rodrigo Abd, AP
American paratroopers fly over the English Channel en route to play a key role in the invasion of France by landing along a 100 mile front of the Normandy coast on June 6, 1944. AP Photo/U.S. SIgnal Corps

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